Thousands hear Obama speak in Washington SquareBy Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke
I love New York. I used to live in New York, hang out in Washington Square Park, said Barack Obama last Thursday night at a rally in Washington Square Park. I know Greenwich Village! I know  he started to say, then tapped the microphone as if it had lost power.

Taylor promises to talk to community on Pier 40By Lincoln Anderson
With its new chairperson, Diana Taylor, firmly at the helm, the board of directors of the Hudson River Park Trust did not vote at their bimonthly meeting last Thursday on whether to select The Related Companies hotly debated Cirque du Soleil plan for Pier 40. However, in comments made after the meeting, Taylor said the Trusts board will vote on the issue sometime in the fall.

Mosaic Man has meltdown, demands room, respectBy Lorcan Otway
In sections on the East Village in guidebooks on New York City, there are photographs of mosaic lampposts, a mosaic bus bench made from a broken planter and mosaic restaurant walls. These are all the work of Jim Power a.k.a. the Mosaic Man.

VILLAGER ART & LIFESTYLE

Flemish playwright no longer lost in translationBy JERRY TALLMER
Theres a crazy man  crazy with jealousy  walking the stage of the Connelly Theater on East 4th Street. His name is Bruno. What has he got to be jealous about? Why, his sweet, innocent, gorgeous, adoring young wife, untouched by any man but him. Stellas her name, and Bruno is obsessively convinced not only that every male in the world  that cocky young rogue who tends the goats, for instance  is just aching to jump her bones, but that maybe his adoring young wife is just aching to have them do it.

Joseph Solman: Still life at 98BY ABBY LUBY
Veteran artist Joseph Solman sat in a worn recliner in his living room, its walls bedecked with richly colored portraits and street scenes that hes painted over the last 80 years, many in the same sixth-floor apartment on 10th St. and Second Ave. where hes lived and worked for the past five decades. Oddly out of place in his living room was a large, flat-screen TV.

NYMF takes on mental illness and murder  with musicBy Rachel Fershleiser
ADD. OCD. Mass murder. Tap dancing? The fourth annual New York Musical Theatre Festival is underway, and its leaving no topic unturned. Fast becoming the Sundance of musicals, NYMF (affectionately pronounced nymph) is a clearinghouse for new voices both on stage and off. This year marked the debut of the programs 100th show, and while many have never been heard from again, others, like Altar Boyz, Gutenberg! The Musical, and the clever meta-musical [title of show], have gone on to commercial runs, and even Broadway buzz.

Take back the stageBy Adrienne Urbanski
Bothered by how few opportunities exist for women in theater, producer and writer Fiona Jones decided to launch a festival showcasing the underused female talent around her. The result was the Estrogenius Festival, which spotlights female actors, writers, directors, artists, dancers, and musicians. Now in its eighth season, the festival has expanded its offerings to include a rotation of 19 short plays; Girl Power, performances written by and for teens; and Voices of Africa, a collaboration with Peace Corps Niger, in which pieces penned by girls from Niger are performed, with all proceeds funding the girls educations.

NEWSParents group means business on Pier 40s futureBy Lincoln Anderson
When the Pier 40 Working Group recently proposed that public funds  instead of monies generated by large-scale private development on Pier 40  be used to maintain Hudson River Park, Henry Stern, a member of the Hudson River Park Trusts board of trustees, blasted the idea as socialist.

St. Vincents calls on Koch to make calls for expansionBy Albert Amateau and Lincoln Anderson
Former Mayor Ed Koch has been tapped to be co-chairperson of Friends of the New St. Vincents, a new group supporting St. Vincents plans for a new hospital on the west side of Seventh Ave. and residential buildings on the east side of the avenue.

Bloomberg Great Hall appearance keeps em guessingBy Gerard Flynn and Lorcan Otway
Comments made by Tom Brokaw following his interview with Mike Bloomberg at The Cooper Union last week may cast doubt on the billionaire mayors claims that he has no intention of running for president.

Kane teases whether hell drop striptease club bidBy Albert Amateau
An online report on Sept. 28 that Ivan Kane has decided not to open his Forty Deuce burlesque club at 19 Kenmare St. has proved to be premature, but its still a possibility that Kane may bail out.

Discovering Hudson SquareHudson Square, a neighborhood which some residents think doesnt exist, actually has its origins from two centuries ago as we report in this special section. Local residents and developers are fighting a city plan to build a 140-foot parking garage for garbage trucks and they commissioned five architectural firms to come up with ideas for the area.

The Squares lines are not straightforwardBy Josh Rogers
I work in Hudson Sq. or at least I say I do. But I dont actually say it  mainly because many New Yorkers have never heard of it, and some that have dont believe it exists. Why bring confusion or an argument to a party? The truth is I feel I work in Hudson Sq.

Nabe fights plan to dump garbage trucksBy Patrick Hedlund
When Nancy Miller envisions the construction of a proposed sanitation facility in Hudson Square, the executive director of a local vision rehabilitation center fears for the safety of the visually impaired clients making their way to her office each day.

Architects brainstorm ways to add park spaceBy Patrick Hedlund
The future of Manhattans West Side lies in an area some still cant find on a map, and it contains some of the most developable land on the island, though many might have trouble recognizing the neighborhoods name.

Extra! Extra! Media firms move to Hudson SquareBy Patrick Hedlund
While the days of Hudson Square as a hub for the citys printing industry have faded like yesterdays news, a crop of new media companies has begun setting up shop in the neighborhood to breath new life into the former publishing center.